While it ’s always an exciting day in the IFLScience squad when we hit across the latest baby brute taking the internet by storm , it seemed as though nothing could match our fixation withMoo Deng – then came along Pesto , the most delightfully chonky baby penguin we ’ve ever seen .
If you ’re not already familiar , Pesto is aking penguinchick resident at SEA LIFE Melbourne in Australia . When he hatched back in late January , he count only 200 gm ( 7 oz. ) , penguin keeper Michaela Smale toldABC News .
“ Nine months on , he is 22 and a half kilograms [ 49.6 pounds ] , ” said Smale . " His parents , Tango and Hudson , weigh between 11 kilo and 12 kg [ 24.3 to 26.5 pounds ] , so he is almost double their size . " We were n’t kidding when we said he was a hefty cub .
Pesto and his parents, before he acquired S-tier levels of chonk.Image credit: SEA LIFE Melbourne
While king penguins are the second - largest penguin species , Pesto ’s size is at the very least unique to this particularcolony ; concord to a command send to IFLScience by SEA LIFE Melbourne , he ’s the biggest skirt that the aquarium has ever seen .
In amongst the amusive comparisons , however , one question that has oft pop up : why is Pesto the absolute building block that he is ?
One reasonableness is his appetite , managing to tuck into 25 fish a day over four feeding times – though that ’s not necessarily strange considering that in the state of nature , Martin Luther King penguin chicksrely on their fat storesin order to survive through their first winter , so it ’s authoritative that they pile on the pounds early on .
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King penguin? More like king of the side eye.Image credit: SEA LIFE Melbourne
The aquarium has attribute his impressive bod to a “ combination of good gene and good parents . ”
“ Firstly , his biological dad , Blake , is our big and oldest penguin , ” reads the section of theaquarium ’s sitededicated to Pesto ( quite appropriately titled “ Pesto is the bestO ” ) . “ Secondly , he ’s had amazing parents raising him ! ”
But if you ’re hop to grab an in - somebody glimpse of the fully grown brown pompom in all his flossy nimbus , time ’s tick ; at nine month onetime , it wo n’t be too much longer until Pesto fledges , at which point he ’ll be a pompom no more .
As penguin keeper Jacinta Early explained to ABC News , " Once those babe feathers come off , he ’ll shrink like a balloon and be slender and beautiful and ready to take his first steps in the pool . "
Do n’t worry Pesto , we ’ll still love you regardless .
